Two family
lines converged when these two young Swedish
immigrants met and married in
Chicago. Although John and Mathilda came from very different places, they
shared a common language, nation, and culture; perhaps, too, their reasons for
emigrating were typical of their generation. Öland, the birthplace of John
Olson, is shown off the coast on this map of Southern Sweden. Mathilda
Bredberg's Västergötland spreads from the West coast up to the two great lakes.

JOHN OLSON
was
born Johann August Ossian Olausson (Olson) in 1871, on the island of Öland, off the
southeast coast of mainland Sweden. The fifth child of Ole Magnusson and Stina
Marie, he was a younger son of an extended family that had worked land in Öland
for generations.

John Olson's - and our own Swedish family history -- springs from the land -
particularly the piece of farmland known as Askelunda #3, in Alböke Parish of
the North Mittlands.
Ownership of the farm can be traced from generation to generation as far back
as
the 17th Century. Starting with one Jens Persson, the farm passed to his son,
Lars Jensson, and then to Lars' daughter, whose husband Olaf Nilsson took it
over. Their son Per Olafsson owned the property, but when he drowned in 1829,
the land passed to Kjirsten Persdotter's husband Magnus Johansson, and another
dynasty began.

Magnus Johansson was murdered, beaten with a rock, in 1840 (a crime unsolved for years until a neighbor's death-bed confession.) His death left a family of 3 daughters and 4
sons, but only one would inherit the land. Askelunda #3 passed to Johann Peter
Magnusson, whose descendants still live and work on the land.

But what of the sons who didn't inherit? Our own family line comes down from
Magnus's son Olagus, (Olaus, or "Ole") born at Askelunda in 1839, the year
before his father's death by violence. Marrying Christina Nilsdotter, from
Mönsterås across the sound, Ole raised a large family while working around the
region, probably as a tenant farmer. From year to year they moved about,
working
mostly in the nearby Öland towns such as Föra, and Persnäs, where the first 3
children were born: Nels Alfred in 1862, Emma Christine in 1865, and Anna in
1866. ( Alice Ecklund Smith had an old photograph of the thatch-roofed farm
cottage in
Persnäs where her mother Emma Christine was born.) The rest of the family, like
Alma born in 1868, was raised around the west coast fishing village of
Äleklinta, including our own great-grand father, Johann August Ossian, born in
1871. In the succeeding
years at least 5 other children were born and died in their infancy, until
Olaus
himself passed on in 1878.

Within the year, in 1879, mother Christina had remarried to a cousin, Olaf Peter Johansson (a son of the aforementioned Johann Peter Magnusson), but
conditions did not much improve for the family. As soon as they
were able, the children found their own, often separate, ways. Anna
married Nels Johannsson. (She would have four children and ultimately die ,
still a young woman, in childbirth.) Alma also married a man named Johnson and
moved away. Emma Christine was typical of young unmarried girls as she worked
for other farmers in the area.
Throughout the country there was little opportunity for landless workers;
population on the island far exceeded its resources, and emigration to America
was
seen by many as the best solution. In 1883, Nels Alfred, the oldest son of
Olaus, was the first to leave, seeking his fortune in Minnesota. He was
followed by Emma Christine the following year.
Once they had established themselves in the United States, sixteen-year old
Johann August Ossian, too, made his voyage to the New Land in 1887. His mother, the widowed and remarried Christina Nilsdotter, died in 1894, in Stockholm; she is buried along with her 2nd husband in Alböke Church cemetery. (Thanks to Kjell Oscarson and Mildred Gröndin for the original photos of Great-Great-Grandma Christina!)

ASKELUNDA #3
was also undergoing some changes.
Sometime during Ole's lifetime, the actual buildings of old
Askelunda #3 were moved west a number of miles to their present location. This
farm is known as
Hällen. After Johann Peter Magnusson, the farm passed to his son Oscar
Johannsson, who gave his name to the succeeding generations: His sons
and grandchildren continued to use Oscarsson as the family surname. Although
second-born Sven did not farm at Askelunda, his son Kjell Oscarson was able to
buy the land and keep it in the family. Kjell's oldest son Peter also farms
near
the original Askelunda, keeping the tradition alive. Our Swedish relatives
enjoy
their bond with the land, taking pride in the ancestral buildings, (Kjell
pointed out that the windmill at Hällen had burned and been rebuilt three
times.) The scattered 21st-century family members can feel some sense of that
connection to our Swedish past, knowing that our blood relatives continue to
lead the cattle to pasture as our ancestors have done for many
generations.

THE ISLE of ÖLAND
dangles off the
southeast coast of Sweden, connnected since the 1970's to the mainland by a 7
km-long bridge. For all the millennia before - all through the time of our
ancestors - the rocky isle stood isolated in the Baltic, 87 miles long, 10
miles narrow -- a
land with few resources, at the mercy of the elements, and vulnerable to
marauders from abroad. To the east was the open sea and foreign lands; to the
west was an often equally disinterested and sometimes hostile Sweden.

Evidence has been found of occupation by stone-age and
bronze-age people farming on Öland as early as 2500 B.C. Iron-age residents
also
eked out an existence, leaving remains of rocky villages, ship-shaped tumuli,
and other grave sites. Circular stone fortresses were built to defend against
invaders from elsewhere in Scandinavia, even after the island became part of
the
Swedish realm in the 9th Century. Viking-era runestones still punctuate the
landscape.

Öland was christianized in the 11th Century, and some of the medievel stone
churches still stand. (As in the rest of Sweden, service in the old church of
Alböke today is Lutheran.) During the Middle Ages the population suffered from
the Black Plague among other scourges. Invaded by Denmark in 1361, ruled for a
time by the Hanseatic League, Öland was ultimately wasted by Swedish rulers who
from 1569 - 1801 exploited the entire island as an exclusive hunting preserve
of
the aristocracy. Abusive laws severely retarded development of the island's
meager resources and residents suffered under the burden. Drastic changes were
to come, but with unexpected results.

In 1805 the population was about 20,000, but by the 1860's improved farming
practices, with the help of government reforms, had increased the population to
37,000 - much more than the island could support. Crop failures in 1867-1868
had
a devastating effect. (No wonder Great-great grandpa Ole was struggling from
one
farm village to another!) Part of the solution had to be emigration. Our
great-grandparents' generation joined what was to become a flood of emigrants -
more than 13,000 who left Öland over a 30-year period.

The present-day Swedes who call Öland home must today tolerate a reverse-flow
of that tide every summer, when two and a half million vacationers flock to the
sunny beaches some 400 km. south of Stockholm. Tourism is the second-biggest
industry, after
agriculture. (Dairy farms like our cousin Kjell's Hällen are typical, but crops
include strawberries, onions, potatoes and sugar beets.) In addition to a zoo
and amusement park with water slides, there are other special attractions for
the tourist: Borgholm Castle, a formidable royal fortress near the city of the
same name; Solliden, the Royal Family's villa with its beautiful grounds;
Eketorp, a reconstructed iron-age fort and village; and the Great Alvar, a
thin-soiled, limestone plain of stark beauty, which like the Ottenby nature
preserve attracts a multitude of migratory birds. The entire island abounds
with
unique flora and fauna, from the rocky promontories at land's end to the
Mittland Forests. Of course nothing stirs the blood of a genealogist like
seeing
the gravestones of ancestors lovingly tended in a churchyard -- although the
simple charm of Öland's windmills is quite a gratifying sight.

MATHILDA BREDBERG
came from the land between the two great lakes of the Västergotland
region. Her father Karl OLAFSSON had been born in 1827 in the village of Varv.
As a young man he must have taken the surname BREDBERG. (Men were encouraged
to adopt these "soldier names" when they performed their compulsory military
service, as the "patronymic" surname custom - e.g. Olaf's son or Ole's son -
was becoming increasingly impractical for modern bureaucratic systems like the
army.) Karl was thirty years old when he married Anna Stina JOHANNSDOTTER, who
in 1830 had been born in the farm village of
Acklinga.
The new BREDBERG family grew as Karl worked year to year as a tenant farmer
on several of the large estates near the city of Tidaholm.

In January 1858 Johann August BREDBERG was born in Dimbo. The year 1859 found
the family in
Åsle
, where Carl Frederic was born in November, followed by Augusta Vilhelmina in
September 1862. By 1865, they had moved up to Thorsö, which in June was the
birthplace of Axel Adolf. The next daughter, however, Anna Sofia, was born back
in Åsle in September of 1868. They were still in Åsle in February of 1871 for
the birth of our great-grandmother, Mathilda Eulalia Christine BREDBERG.

That same year thirteen-year old Johann August died in Åsle. Throughout this
time, we see Karl and his family farming portions of larger properties with
names such as Svartorps Rote and Murtorps. For some years they leased a small
farm known as "Backen" (The Hill - there are several of these in the area.)
As the children grew older, they probably were "farmed out" to other
households to help support the family. We know that Mathilda, for instance,
worked as a house maid, or "piga" for a time at one of several "Nolgårdens",
possibly the farm in Ekedalen. Mathilda also worked at the match factory in
Tidaholm at a young age.

Many Swedes chose not to endure the perilous factory work of that time.
Throughout Sweden, economic conditions were harsh, agriculture barely
supporting the population. The three oldest Bredberg children emigrated each
in turn, Axel and Anne leading the way to Chicago, followed by Mathilda in
1893.

Augusta BREDBERG stayed in the area, marrying Per Ecksted, and some of their
descendants still live around Västergotland and other places in Sweden. One of
their children, Edith, came to Chicago, married, and raised an American family.
Karl Frederick was rumored to have a son in Stockholm in the 1980's.

VÄSTERGÖTLAND
-- West Goth Land -- stretches from the coast, where Gothenburg
is Sweden's second city, to the land between the lakes Vänern and Vättern
(Europe's 3rd- and 5th-largest lakes). Karl BREDBERG and his family, however,
confined their movements to a relatively small area west of the city of
Tidaholm.
The exception is Thorsö, where Axel BREDBERG was born on a large island in
Lake Vänern. Most of the villages of our ancestors are tiny farm communities
at crossroads, separated from each other by wooded hills, rolling pastures, and
green fields. In each place the old church has been restored and stands as a
reminder of an ancient heritage as well as a place of worship. Karl BREDBERG's
birthplace Varv, witness to ancient battles, lies peacefully below the lofty
Varvsberget, the hilltop where hikers and bicyclists climb for the view. The
churchyard in Åsle is lined with old tombstones, some of them carved with runic
inscriptions, and tourists pay admission to visit restored 19th century
cottages. Behind the church at Dimbo lies a bronze-age burial ground,
overgrown with greenery, but criss-crossed with the footpaths of the
townspeople.

TIDAHOLM
was a hub of activity for some of our Bredberg ancestors, and has played
a prominent role in the region's history. Built along the mostly-placid Tidan
River, the Tidaholm smallholding in 1799 was granted railway operation rights
and expanded its forge to take on four new blacksmiths. Soon, the town had
become a flourishing industrial center with its own narrow-gauge railway. In
1868 the town's first matchstick factory started operating, and by the 1900's,
Swedish Match
had become the world's foremost matchstick producer. The town had grown from
a few hundred souls to a population of about 5,000.

The old forge , Tidaholms Bruk, produced not only all of the machinery used in
the match factory; it also produced a world-renowned Tidaholm Special carriage
with adjustable leaf springs for comfort. In 1903 production began of the Tor
I automobile, the first of a long line of trucks, buses, fire-engines and other
vehicles. Although auto manufacture did not survive the 1930's Depression,
Tidaholm's industrial base remains vital; auto components and kitchen ranges
are among the better-known products. And Vulcan/Swedish Match still operates
as the only surviving matchstick factory in Sweden.

Some of the city's history has been preserved on Vulcanön Island on the Tidan
at the Tidaholm Museum, along with a school of lithography. Also nearby is the
Turbinhusön
art gallery, coffeeshop, and Sweden's only Lithography Museum. Sports,
especially cycling, are popular local pastimes . A favorite recreational
destination nearby is the
Hökensås
, a glacial mountain ridge along the western shore of Lake Vättern, where more
than twenty lakes provide excellent sport fishing, and the trails lure summer
hikers as well as winter ski trekkers.

Further research into the Olson and
Bredberg Families may take us further back in time, but I would like to locate
and contact relatives from contemporary branches as well.

I would like to confirm and fill out the history of the family at
Askelunda/Hällen in Öland. Working on my Swedish.

It may be
possible to trace the Bredberg/Olafsson branch in Vastergotland further back
in time .

Several other families from the Öland line, in Sweden and the US,
should be contacted. These include descendants of Anna OLAUSDOTTER
JOHANNSSON,
other descendants of Johann Peter MAGNUSSON, and the family of Nels Alfred
OLSON in Colorado and parts West.

It's been twenty years since I was last in contact with any of the ECKLUND
families; a new generation has come and the oldest one gone in that time. I
need to follow up on that scattered tribe.

Other descendants of the BREDBERG line should likewise be discovered,
both in Chicago and in Sweden.